The Cure for Insomnia
by okieeiffel
Summary: Lily Evans is suffering from Insomnia. There really was only one person she could think of to cure her boredom. Of course, she should have known that in the wee morning hours he would have something else in mind.


**Author's notes**: Thanks to my beta, the super wonderful Hillary, for her help.

**Disclaimer: **J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. I do not in any way profit from this story.

"…498, 499, 500."

The imaginary sheep ceased their bouncing over her bed as she let out a petulant huff of air. Lily Evans, resident Head Girl of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had never tried a more entirely rubbish way to fall asleep, but after having finished her last batch of Sleeping Draught, she'd forgotten to replace her stock. Desperation to find another method besides the potion for a sleep aid had led her to attempt counting sheep, but it had really only served to bore her further.

The occasional bouts of insomnia that Lily suffered from were entirely frustrating experiences. She would simply lie down in her bed to sleep just like any other night, but sleep would never come. It was a Friday night—well, Saturday morning now. She wasn't worried about schoolwork or anything else. Her restlessness defied all explanation. She felt physically tired, and her mind was entirely blank. Why couldn't she sleep then?

Angrily grabbing her pillow at roughing it up didn't make her feel better. She tossed the pillow onto the bed and threw herself on top of it frustration. Trying to find a comfortable position in her bed, she tossed and turned before settling into one. Then, a loud, angry sigh escaped her lips as she realized her pajamas were now bunched up uncomfortably around her. Lily pulled them down and was off again, tossing and turning in search for a new position.

If only she were still in her old dorm room with the other seventh year girls. At least then she wouldn't have been alone. Marlene and Alice, in particular, were incredibly light sleepers. With the constant creaking of her bed and the chorus of annoyed huffs that followed, Lily knew they would've awoken by now. Marlene would've grumbled at her, telling her to cut it out. Alice would've inquired as to how many sleeping positions there could possibly be. Then, they would've grudgingly given up on sleep, accompanying her instead to the common room for a game of cards or to the kitchens for a late night snack.

Now Lily was here in her dorm alone with absolutely nothing to do and no one to wake up to keep her company.

On its own volition a thought wandered into her head— a thought that reminded her that she wasn't _really_ alone—the Head Boy _was_ right across the way. Lily could wake him in theory. He once had told her that if she needed anything, she could count on him. Lily doubted he had this in mind, but it counted, right?

Or she could stay here and count sheep to a thousand this time…

If asked, Lily would've said she fought against going to wake him for several minutes, but in reality it was more like a few seconds before she was throwing off what covers were still on her, standing up and making her way through the Head common room. Lily came to a stop in front of his door with her hand posed to knock. She hesitated for a moment then proceeded to pound on his door. There was no answer. Waiting for a moment, she pounded again. Still nothing.

Apparently James Potter was_ not_ a light sleeper.

"Potter!" she yelled. "Wake up!"

No answer.

Lily figured that he was probably off somewhere causing trouble with his mates, but she wanted to check if he was there, just in case. Trying his door to see if it was locked, she realized it wasn't when it swung slowly open after having turned the knob.

"James?" she questioned as she peeked her head into the room.

A ray of moonlight from his window illuminated his bed, and it wasn't empty. He was laying perfectly still in the middle with his eyes closed, looking for all the world like he was sound asleep and completely oblivious to the fact that his rather loony counterpart had just been pounding with all her might on his door.

Apparently James Potter slept like the dead.

Lily hesitated at the threshold of his room. Everything she had done up to that point had seemed acceptable to her, but walking uninvited into his room was different. That was an invasion of privacy he would most likely _not_ appreciate—even though they _had_ been getting along quite well lately. What if he slept in the nude or had something in there he wouldn't want her to see? If she ever managed to awaken him, would he be cross with her?

Lily had truly been enjoying what she called their "tentative friendship". He made her smile; made her forget about her worries whether they were caused by classes or the atmosphere of war that pervaded the castle. Would this act of desperation ruin what they had going? Lily didn't know, but going back to her room—back to the overwhelming boredom and loneliness—was out of the question. She found herself really wanting him to make her smile right now.

Lily made up her mind to go wake him—consequences be damned. If he got angry she'd just offer to fill in his next rounds report for him (he despised doing those) by way of apology, and he'd get over it. Hopefully.

After having contemplated all of this, she finally took some tentative steps forward into his room. Noticing all of the mess on the floor for the first time, Lily cringed involuntarily. Her feet attempted to sidestep it all as she made her way to his bedside.

Her fear that he slept in the nude abated as she reached his bed and realized his chest was covered with a tee. One fear out of the way, Lily hoped there wasn't anything embarrassing lying about. Keeping her gaze fixed on him even though curiosity was prickling at her to look around his room, she wondered how she should go about waking him up.

Lily leaned in and hissed, "James!" When he didn't reply she gave him a poke in the shoulder with her finger. "Wake up!"

This earned a, "humph" noise from him and a swat at her hand. At least it was a response.

Lily tried the finger jab again. He rolled over away from her poking finger, making her have to reach in to give his arm a push. Nothing happened. She tried it a couple more times but still nothing.

What lengths was she going to have to go to in order to wake up the stupid sod?

Lily knew resorting to her next tactic was going to the extreme but couldn't really help herself. She wanted James' company more than any other thing she could think of at the moment—her boredom was that severe. Trying not to think about what she would do to him if the situation was reversed, Lily crawled onto his bed. With her knees resting on the mattress, she put both of her hands on his arms and shook him roughly.

Momentary relief washed over her when he sat up, but was gone a second later when she felt a rough shove and was hitting the floor with one loud, pain-filled, "oof." Lily had not been expecting _that_ one.

Lily heard him mutter a curse to light the oil lamp on his bedside table. Then, she saw him putting on his glasses. He looked down at her, shock registering on his face.

"Oh, bollocks!" he exclaimed as he climbed off the bed and proceeded to help her up. "I'm sorry, Lily. I thought—I thought you were someone else. Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

"No, your pile of Chocolate Frog wrappers did a pretty decent job of breaking my fall," she said with a rub of her bum.

He turned his attention to the pile in question for a moment before muttering, "Knew there was reason I shouldn't clean them up." Then, his gaze retuned to hers and she registered concern in his eyes, "Why'd you wake me up? Is something wrong? Has something happened?"

"Oh, no—nothing like that." Lily told him quickly, feeling a slight pinch of guilt at his worry for her. "Nothing…nothing's wrong or anything. I'm just…just bored," Lily finished with an embarrassed cringe. Merlin, she was pathetic.

Now that he was awake Lily was feeling a bit mortified by her behavior, and anxious for his response to it. He was staring at her as if she were Knarl on the rampage, which made her blush and curse herself over and over in her mind, 'Stupid, stupid, _stupid_…'

"Bored?" he finally questioned as if he had never heard of the word before. He looked at the clock next to his bed and then looked back at her. "Lily are you completely off your rocker? It's 3:27 in the morning. You should be asleep. Go to bed."

She couldn't help but let out a sigh in relief. That was it? He had said, "Go to bed." That was so much better than the, "what the bloody hell are you doing in my room?" or, "what an inconsiderate twat you are." she had been expecting.

She grinned then, realizing that she'd been a bit silly to worry about him getting angry. He was _James _after all. Of course he would look at her like she was mad but let her get away with her rudeness anyway. When did the bloke ever not go out of his way to please her?

Then Lily realized he was turning and crawling back into bed and the grin quickly vanished.

"What…what are you doing?"

"Going to back to sleep," he informed her matter-of-factly.

"Please don't," she pleaded while sitting on the side of his mattress. "How about you keep me company instead? Doesn't that sound even _better_ than sleeping?"

"Lily," James groaned as he tried to tug his blanket out from under her, "I'm completely knackered. Bugger off."

"Fine, I see how it is. Tell a bird to come to you for help and try to turn her away when she actually does," Lily said all of this in a jokingly haughty manner. She pretended to find something quite interesting on her fingernail while waiting for his response to her accusation. Lily looked back up at him after a moment went by and he hadn't said anything in defense. Had she gone too far and made him angry?

He was looking at her rather incredulously. Then, the fists that had been pulling at his blanket went slack as gave up on recovering it. He turned and stretched out onto his stomach, wrapping his arms around his pillow and closing his eyes.

Well bugger, he had once upon a time always gone out of his way to please her anyway. She never thought she'd miss _those_ days.

"Please don't be angry with me for waking you."

He sighed before replying, "I'm not."

Lily took that as encouragement. She crawled further into his bed then moving from her knees onto her bum, she scooched until she was sitting with her back resting up against his head board. "It's just—I can't sleep. I've tried, so could you stay up with me? I need human interaction in the worst sort of way," Lily said by way of explanation for her mad behavior.

The only response she got was an, "Hmph," noise from him.

Lily shifted onto her side until her front was facing him using one hand to prop herself up. Hoping she wasn't crossing any physical boundaries she shouldn't, she brought up her other hand to his hair and began to run her fingers through it. Lily figured if there was any way to keep him from going back to sleep a little bit of physical interaction from her would be just the thing to do the trick. Well, that and she had always wanted to run her fingers through it and it was _right_ there.

Leaning down a bit until her mouth was right above his ear, she whispered softly, "James, you're not _really_ going back to sleep are you?"

Lily had hoped that in response to this he would have acquiesced to her demands that he wake up, but instead he unwrapped one his arms from his pillow and proceeded to wrap it around _her_. Before a protest could escape her lips he was pulling her down until she was lying on her side. He turned so that they were facing each other and made sure she was firmly tucked in beside him before mumbling, "Shhh. Go to sleep."

Their tentative friendship seemed to be taking leaps and bounds tonight. Lily mentally scolded herself for having done the hair thing—_and_ the getting into his bed thing. What _had_ she been thinking? It most certainly seemed he wasn't too concerned with crossing any physical boundaries, and she _had_ technically been the one to start it. She couldn't make a big deal of it now—not that she really found herself wanting to anyway.

"I've already told you I can't sleep."

"Try."

"I _have_ tried."

"Try again.

"What? Here? Like this? That seems highly inappropriate. Maybe _you_ should wake up and join me in the common room for a nice game of chess."

"It's in my nature to prefer the highly inappropriate. Now, shh." he reprimanded.

"Well, not mine! It's in mine to prefer a nice game of chess!"

He didn't verbally respond to that, but when she bent her head back to look up at him she saw a grin spread across his face—the first one she had seen that night. She couldn't help but to grin back, even though he didn't make a move to get out of bed.

Lily knew that her next course of action should have been to untangle herself from his arm and remove her body from right beside his person, but she couldn't seem to bring herself to do it. It did feel kind of nice, being wrapped up next to him, so she thought she would stay that way for now. The thought that tentative friends don't cuddle with each other in bed was pushed to the back of her mind. Who said they couldn't anyway? She didn't see the harm of it. It wasn't as if they were doing anything they shouldn't. She just had to keep him awake and talking.

"James, regale me with tales of your misbegotten adventures."

He sighed. "Blimey, you're not going to give up are you?" he asked in exasperation. "And you call _me_ a persistent bugger?"

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying this payback. Now tell me," she demanded with a grin. "Please?" she added as an afterthought.

"Tell you what?"

"You're a Marauder—the pranks you lot pull. Not everything always goes according to plan, right? Tell me about a time when everything got all bodged up, and make it good. I could use a funny story."

She looked up at him expectantly while he appeared to ponder for a moment.

"I dunno—a toilet exploded once."

She gave him a skeptical look. "That's it? A toilet exploded once? You can't think of anything better than that?"

"Not at 3:30 in the morning. Ask again tomorrow. That would be a good time—a great time. Night, night."

A few minutes passed and he didn't say anything else. Lily let out a sigh. It was time—time to give up— because perhaps she felt a little more comfortable snuggled up next to him than she should have as a tentative friend. Admitting that to herself and the possibilities of _why_ she might feel that way, suddenly made their current state seem a lot more like dangerous territory they shouldn't be in. Lily made a move to try and leave but James' arm held her firmly.

"Alright, James, you win. I'll let you go back to sleep, but you've got to let me go."

"No."

"No?" she asked."What do you mean_ no_?

"You said I won didn't you? Now, go to sleep."

"I meant me letting yousleep, not me sleeping with you, you prat."

"Doesn't matter what you meant. You said you couldn't sleep and you came to me for help, crawled into my_ bed_ for help. Now, I'm going to help you. Close your eyes."

She laughed. "You're mad. I wanted your help to cure my boredom."

"And you're mad if you think that I'm going to let you go. You were right. I _am_ a persistent bugger," he said with a mischievous grin, "and I've got you right where I want you."

"This is not going—"

"No. No," he cut her off. "Close your eyes. Relax. Shh," he finished with a whisper.

Lily felt a chill run up and down her spine despite the warmth of being so close to him. He had started soothingly rubbing her back, and it felt entirely relaxing. He smelled good, too. A mixture of things she couldn't quite name that somehow comforted her as well. Warning sirens were going off all through her mind and she knew she should protest some more. He would let go if she really put up a fight. She really should go.

When his hand went up and started to massage gently at the base of her neck, she couldn't bring herself to care anymore, she could ignore a few alarms in her head. How did they know what was best for her anyway? Did they really expect her to continue to tell him "no" when "yes" felt so right and good?

Merlin, she was easily persuaded. She did her best to ignore how telling her actions were.

As she lay there breathing in his scent and enjoying his gentle rubbing at her neck she found herself following his instructions and closing her eyes. They were getting awfully heavy all the sudden anyway. There was something about lying peacefully in his arms that was slowly unwinding her. Lily felt utterly tranquil for the first time that night, and something that she believed was sleep started beckoning her ever closer.

"This is nice," Lily mumbled without really thinking.

James uttered a content hum from somewhere deep in his throat.

"I should probably go. I'm sure I could sleep on my own now," Lily whispered, but she never opened her eyes and didn't make a move to leave. In fact, her legs tangled up with his of their own accord as if to protest the idea of leaving.

"Stay for now. You can go in a bit."

"M'kay," she agreed through a yawn. Yes, leaving in a little bit would certainly do.

She was somewhere between the world of the living and the land of dreams when she felt him press a kiss against her forehead and heard him mutter, "Sweet dreams, Lily."

She couldn't check the impulse to lift her head and give him a quick kiss in return. She'd meant to hit his cheek. Really, she had, but she supposed his lips would do nicely as well. They were so warm and soft; she thought she might want to stay there for a while, but sleep was demanding her company. It wasn't like she couldn't explore them a bit more some other time. She broke away and quickly muttered, "You, too." She laid her forehead on his chest and closed her eyes once more. She smiled to herself when she registered the fact that his heart was beating a bit more rapidly just then.

In her last conscious thoughts, she pondered if she really would kiss him again later. Then, she was finally blissfully asleep.


End file.
